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THE CHORLEY HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Notes from the Archives

Transcript - Fifty Years Cycling - from Chorley and Leyland Advertiser Oct 29 1932.
Reminiscences of Weird Machines and Doughty Riders.

The story of the bicycle was the subject of an address to the Chorley Rotary Club by Mr. W. M. Gillibrand, on Monday. The weekly meeting was held at the Royal oak Hotel, and Mr W. G. Berry was in the chair.
LEARNING TO RIDE THE BONESHAKER DRESSED FOR THE OCCASION CHURCHWARDEN TRICYCLISTS
OUTSTANDING EVENTS DAY TO REPAIR PUNCTURE SEVEN MILLION CYCLISTS

DAY TO REPAIR PUNCTURE.
The first Dunlop tyred machine I rode had a flat rim. The rubber part of the tyre was cemented to strong canvas, and after the air tube was put inside the tyre this canvas was cemented to the outside of the rim, fitting in between the spokes; then the other side overlapped and was cemented on the top of the first piece of canvas. To repair a puncture the cement on the canvas had to be softened with a solvent before one could get to the inner tube. After the puncture had been found and repaired the whole thing had to be fastened up again. It often took a day to repair a puncture.

The advent of the pneumatic tyre led to all kinds of similar inventions. There came various kinds of cushion tyres and tyres with inner tube and outer cover combined. The latter were called single tube tyres. I bought a Bayliss and Thomas bicycle with this tyre on, and had 27 punctures in a day and a half. If there was no water around when one had a puncture one had to find the puncture by spitting on the tyre where it was thought the hole was. You might picture the cyclist on a hot say, trying to make enough spittle to find the puncture!
When Harley, the greatest and most prolific inventor of cycles, brought out his tricycle with the differential gear, similar to that which is used in motor cars to-day, he received an order from the late Queen Victoria to deliver two at Osborn House. Whether she rode one herself I do not know, but I have a sketch of her doing so, published at that time.

If cycling has done nothing else than to take the town dwellers into the pure air of the country it has justified itself. But it is doing a much greater work, for it is educating seven millions of the inhabitants of these islands to an appreciation of the beauties of nature and a love of their country, an education which will continue as long as life lasts.

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